sabi sabi wild facts: puff adder
The puff adder (family Viperidae, genus bitis, species arietans), is a heavily built snake with a distinctive flat, triangular head. Most snakes in this family have similarly shaped heads. The species is found throughout the continent except in rain forests, mountain tops and deserts. Their preferred habitat is grassland, bushveld areas and rocky outcrops. Although more often seen at night, during the summer months they are known to be diurnal as well as nocturnal.
Although the puff adders are relatively short snakes seldom exceeding a length of around 1 metre, they are particularly heavy, some attaining weights of over 4 kgs. They are quite long lived, with an average lifespan of around 13 years. When disturbed they coil themselves into their defensive position and hiss loudly in warning - hence their name.
Puff adders have front-hinged fangs which, when the snake strikes, unfold forwards in a lighting fast "switch-blade" motion. When the snake's mouth is closed, the fangs are sheathed and folded into the roof of the mouth. The venom is cytotoxic and will result in severe pain and necrosis. If not treated promptly tissue damage may be severe enough to warrant limb amputation.
The puff adder is the most common venomous snake in Africa, and is responsible for more snakebite incidents and deaths than any other snake on the continent. This does not mean that their venom is the most toxic - in fact only a small percentage of puff adder bites result in death. The high number of fatalities attributed to this snake is because of the sheer number of bites inflicted by the species. More than half of all snake-bites in Africa are from the puff adder alone, with the balance of incidents being shared between all the other venomous snake species put together.
Puff adders are ovoviviparous, meaning that the snake incubates its eggs internally until they are ready to hatch. After a gestation period of between 7-9 months the mother snake gives birth to a litter of 20 - 50 young. These baby snakes are already highly venomous at birth.
In general these are sluggish snakes relying on their camouflage to ambush their prey - birds, amphibians, small mammals and lizards. Their colour varies in shade of brown, black and sometimes yellowish or orange, making them very hard to see on the ground. Being ambush predators, they do not move when being approached by people, and are often stumbled upon while basking in the sun on footpaths. As with most snakes they are reluctant to strike, but if provoked or stepped on, they can strike forward or sideways and be back into coiled position within a quarter of a second. This is possibly the fasted striking snake in the world.
